The Natural History of Selborne

Gracious street pond dry, & cleaned out.  Much water in the pond on the hill.  The pond at Faringdon dry.

A brood of little partridges was seen in Baker’s hill among the Sainfoin.

Nep. and niece Ben White brought little Ben.

Brood of nightingales frequents the walks. The number of swifts are few, because they are stopped-out from the eaves of the church, which were repaired last autumn. The nest of a
Flusher, or red-backed Butcher-bird was found near Alton. Pease, barley, & oats look well, especially the first, which show fine bloom: wheat looks but poorly. What at market rises. Sheep are washed.

Netted the wall-cherries.  Boys bring wood-strawberries;  not ripe.

A pair of fly-catchers build in my vines.  The late frost did much damage at Fyfield, but little or none at Selborne.  My potatoes, kidney-beans, & nasturtiums were not injured: some balsoms, that touched the glasses, were scorched.

Field-pease in fine bloom.  Many swifts at Wansworth, Kingston, Cobham, &c.  Hay-making general about London; some meadow hay cut at Farnham.

The late frost, I find, has done much damage in Hants.

A poor gardener in this parish who had three acres of kidney-beans, has lost them all by the frost of last week! Hay finely made, & making. The rudiments of the vine-bloom does not seem to be injured by the late frost.

Straw-berries, scarlet, cryed about.  Straw-berries dry, & tasteless.  Quail calls in the field next to the garden.